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Comment Re:America doesn't have pennies. (Score 1) 42

>"Pennies are British. America has cents"

I have never heard anyone in the USA call the physical coins "cents." We call them "pennies" but the value measurement is in cents. For example, my change is four cents and I will be given four pennies. "I found a penny" (not "I found a cent".)

Pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters.

Comment Re:Africa Least Distorted and Centred (Score 2) 229

People tend to greatly under-estimate the size and potential of Africa.

But I'm at a complete loss as to why you think estimating the size of Africa has anything to do with estimating the potential of Africa. Centuries of history provide strong evidence that size of countries/continents/islands has very little correlation to what they have the potential to accomplish.

The Netherlands has 3 times the GDP of the largest economy in Africa. $1.228 Trillion compared to South Africa's $410 million. If you add Africa's total GDP up, the Dutch alone make almost half that. Their land area is about 16K square miles. Africa is almost 12 million square miles.

In wealth production, land size doesn't necessarily matter.

Comment Re:Africa Least Distorted and Centred (Score 2) 229

"Large population willing to work hard will mean economic growth."

We'd all like to believe that, but sadly, it's not true. A corrupt leadership means the population will never get out of poverty no matter how hard they work.

The leadership is a reflection of the culture at large. It starts at the very bottom. If a young man decides to better his station in life, and start a business, the first time he starts getting ahead, his father will swoop in and claim it. Because the culture says that the head of the clan owns everything his wives and offspring produce.

It wasn't westerners that came up with the expression "Africa wins again". It was Africans.

Comment Re:Easier than what? (Score 1) 229

Yeah, there aren't a lot of popular map projections that fail that test, unless you perhaps count the polar projection used for the UN logo. I'm guessing that sentence is there as a result of editing; perhaps it originally said equally-spaced parallels (which is true of the Robinson projection) but someone math-savvy was consulted to correct the claim to its current form (without seeing the context) and the maintainer of the page wasn't knowledgeable enough to realise it should just be removed.

Comment Re:Nature vs Environment (Score 1) 71

>"Looking up one of the most popular cat foods sold (Purina One) in this case specifically the Chicken and Rice version."

Well, I wouldn't consider that a premium brand (and believe me, they sell a LOT of premium stuff now). If you looked at those, especially ones that say "grain free" you won't typically see rice, corn, oats, or wheat. Some of what you listed isn't concerning:

- Mixed-tocopherols (preservative)
That is vitamin E

- Glycerin
That "should" be neutral

- Dried chicory root
Almost every cat food has that. It is an attractant. Not sure it is of much concern

- Dried carrots
Yeah, many brands slip some different vegetables and sometimes fruit into them. I am not sure what to think on that. Has allergy potential, for sure (and I had the hell of dealing with that before). Some of the theory is that as cats would eat their prey, they would also be eating "some" of what the prey ate, which could provide some additional vitamins and minerals.

Comment Six years (Score 1) 82

>"In 2019, Accenture said it had won a contract to expand an HR platform [...] and was later expanded to include Space Force, grew to cost $368 million and was scheduled for its first deployment this summer at the Air Force Academy."

So SIX YEARS before just HR/Payroll software STARTS to roll out to just one small portion of the organization sounds reasonable? Granted, it can be a mess working with multiple vendors. But this sounds really long for something with such a [seemingly] narrow scope. HR/Payroll is a function that *every* business/organization does and it isn't rocket science. Surely 80+% of what they are doing is the same as anywhere else and is already written code/products.

Comment Re:Nature vs Environment (Score 1) 71

>"I didn't know until you mentioned it that legumes are now part of cat food."

Oh yes, this has been the latest "thing" for quite a number of years since "grains" were removed. They shifted to other, non-"grain" carbohydrates, especially peas. That did improve allergy issues with some cats, but is still questionable. Cats weren't designed to eat peas and chickpeas :)

Comment Re:Nature vs Environment (Score 1) 71

>"given that most domestic cat food is processed crap which probably mimics the processed crap that humans eat"

Actually, cat food has greatly improved in many ways over the decades. The price has certainly gotten ridiculous. Anyway, there are great debates about the best ideal diet for cats, and LOTS more choices now. One thing I learned, which was hard to "swallow" was that "meals" and "byproducts" can actually be a GOOD thing for them, because they evolved to eat some of that gross stuff. The most suspect are grains, legumes, and other carbohydrates. Cats are true ("obligate") carnivores, unlike humans and even dogs. https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.catster.com%2Fnutrit... Felines (the family) are also the best hunters of all mammals; so that kinda fits.

>"Then again, maybe feral cats simply don't live long enough to develop the disease..."

They don't. Average lifespan in the wild for cats is much, much lower than for pets (between just 2 and 5 years). But that would be true for probably any animal, including humans.

Comment Re: Counterintuitive (Score 1) 72

It's pretty dishonest for the link to group auto accidents with armed robberies, assault, rape, etc. Violence, as a legal definition, is intentional. Accidents, by their very definition, are not.

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